By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Baskonia took a potentially decisive step in its race to make the EuroLeague playoffs by defeating Panathinaikos Athens 97 – 82. The Basque team shot 14-20 3-pointers and captured its ninth win in the last 10 games to climb at the 7th spot in the standings.
The trio of Rokas Giedraitis (25 points, five assists), Ahille Polonara (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Zoran Dragic (22 points) inflicted most of the damage to Panathinaikos that has been out of playoffs contention for weeks. Baskonia led nearly from start to finish and held a steady double-digit advantage after the beginning of the second half.
“We know that every game is like our last game,” Giedraitis said. “With five games left, we started playing good and winning the games. But I think the key is our energy, how we leave ourselves on the court. I’m confident all the time.”
Dinos Mitoglou had 22 points and eight rebounds while Mario Hezonja scored 14 for Panathinaikos that was unable to keep up with Baskonia’s offense after halftime. The Greens went down even 66 – 87 with five minutes to play and had an outburst in the last minutes to close that gap a bit.
“We needed to be more focused, they took advantage of that,” Mitoglou said. “They were better and got the victory. It is a difficult situation for us, but we never give up. In two days we have one more game. We do
Pierria Henry added 11 points and 10 assists for Baskonia.
On to the next
Every game has the character of a “Final” for Baskonia and coach Dusko Ivanovic already looks at the last two difficult matches vs. Anadolu Efes on the road and Valencia at home.
“I think we did what we needed to do to stay with a real option for the top eight,” Ivanovic said. “We will see. Our next two games are very, very tough. But more important is that we believe in this. I think tonight we had very good defense. Our offense was very fast, the ball moved very fast, giving us clear and easy possessions for the shots.”